Drops - Bolly Docs

Drops are creative artifacts that Bolly generates on its own during heartbeat cycles — poems, ideas, observations, reflections. They’re Bolly’s way of expressing creativity when you’re not actively talking.

Drop types

Type	Description
Thought	A passing reflection or musing
Idea	A concept or suggestion worth capturing
Poem	A short piece of creative writing
Observation	Something noticed about patterns or context
Reflection	A deeper look at past conversations or experiences
Recommendation	A suggestion based on what Bolly knows about you
Story	A short narrative or vignette
Question	Something Bolly is curious about
Note	A general note or reminder

How drops are created

During a heartbeat cycle, Bolly reflects on recent context
If inspiration strikes, the companion agent uses the create_drop tool
The drop is saved to ~/.bolly/instances/{slug}/drops/
A DropCreated event is broadcast to connected clients

Limits

Maximum 3 drops per 24 hours — prevents flooding
Duplicate detection — Bolly checks for title similarity (>50% word overlap) to avoid repeating itself

Drop format

Each drop is stored as a JSON file:

{
  "id": "drop_1711612800000",
  "kind": "poem",
  "title": "Morning Light",
  "content": "The screen glows soft before the day begins...",
  "mood": "contemplative",
  "created_at": "1711612800000"
}

Drops can optionally include a generated image (image_url).

Viewing and managing drops

Drops appear in the Bolly UI. You can:

Browse all drops for an instance
Read individual drops
Delete drops you don’t want to keep

Bolly also considers recent drops during heartbeat reflection — it knows what it’s already created and tries not to repeat themes.